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Text -- Genesis 31:1-54 (NET)
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Strongs On/Off
Context
Jacob’s Flight from Laban
31:1 Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were complaining , “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father ! He has gotten rich at our father’s expense!”
31:2 When Jacob saw the look on Laban’s face , he could tell his attitude toward him had changed.
31:3 The Lord said to Jacob , “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives . I will be with you.”
31:4 So Jacob sent a message for Rachel and Leah to come to the field where his flocks were.
31:5 There he said to them, “I can tell that your father’s attitude toward me has changed, but the God of my father has been with me .
31:6 You know that I’ve worked for your father as hard as I could ,
31:7 but your father has humiliated me and changed my wages ten times . But God has not permitted him to do me any harm .
31:8 If he said , ‘The speckled animals will be your wage ,’ then the entire flock gave birth to speckled offspring . But if he said , ‘The streaked animals will be your wage ,’ then the entire flock gave birth to streaked offspring .
31:9 In this way God has snatched away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
31:10 “Once during breeding season I saw in a dream that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked , speckled , and spotted .
31:11 In the dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob !’ ‘Here I am!’ I replied .
31:12 Then he said , ‘Observe that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked , speckled , or spotted , for I have observed all that Laban has done to you.
31:13 I am the God of Bethel , where you anointed the sacred stone and made a vow to me. Now leave this land immediately and return to your native land .’”
31:14 Then Rachel and Leah replied to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house ?
31:15 Hasn’t he treated us like foreigners ? He not only sold us, but completely wasted the money paid for us!
31:16 Surely all the wealth that God snatched away from our father belongs to us and to our children . So now do everything God has told you.”
31:17 So Jacob immediately put his children and his wives on the camels .
31:18 He took away all the livestock he had acquired in Paddan Aram and all his moveable property that he had accumulated . Then he set out toward the land of Canaan to return to his father Isaac .
31:19 While Laban had gone to shear his sheep , Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father .
31:20 Jacob also deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was leaving .
31:21 He left with all he owned. He quickly crossed the Euphrates River and headed for the hill country of Gilead .
31:22 Three days later Laban discovered Jacob had left .
31:23 So he took his relatives with him and pursued Jacob for seven days . He caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead .
31:24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, “Be careful that you neither bless nor curse Jacob .”
31:25 Laban overtook Jacob , and when Jacob pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead, Laban and his relatives set up camp there too.
31:26 “What have you done ?” Laban demanded of Jacob . “You’ve deceived me and carried away my daughters as if they were captives of war !
31:27 Why did you run away secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me so I could send you off with a celebration complete with singing , tambourines , and harps ?
31:28 You didn’t even allow me to kiss my daughters and my grandchildren good-bye. You have acted foolishly !
31:29 I have the power to do you harm , but the God of your father told me last night , ‘Be careful that you neither bless nor curse Jacob .’
31:30 Now I understand that you have gone away because you longed desperately for your father’s house . Yet why did you steal my gods ?”
31:31 “I left secretly because I was afraid !” Jacob replied to Laban . “I thought you might take your daughters away from me by force .
31:32 Whoever has taken your gods will be put to death ! In the presence of our relatives identify whatever is yours and take it.” (Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.)
31:33 So Laban entered Jacob’s tent , and Leah’s tent , and the tent of the two female servants , but he did not find the idols. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s .
31:34 (Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside her camel’s saddle and sat on them.) Laban searched the whole tent , but did not find them.
31:35 Rachel said to her father , “Don’t be angry , my lord . I cannot stand up in your presence because I am having my period .” So he searched thoroughly, but did not find the idols .
31:36 Jacob became angry and argued with Laban . “What did I do wrong ?” he demanded of Laban . “What sin of mine prompted you to chase after me in hot pursuit ?
31:37 When you searched through all my goods , did you find anything that belonged to you ? Set it here before my relatives and yours , and let them settle the dispute between the two of us!
31:38 “I have been with you for the past twenty years . Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried , nor have I eaten rams from your flocks .
31:39 Animals torn by wild beasts I never brought to you; I always absorbed the loss myself . You always made me pay for every missing animal, whether it was taken by day or at night .
31:40 I was consumed by scorching heat during the day and by piercing cold at night , and I went without sleep .
31:41 This was my lot for twenty years in your house : I worked like a slave for you– fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks , but you changed my wages ten times !
31:42 If the God of my father – the God of Abraham , the one whom Isaac fears – had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed ! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked , and he rebuked you last night .”
31:43 Laban replied to Jacob , “These women are my daughters , these children are my grandchildren , and these flocks are my flocks . All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today or the children to whom they have given birth ?
31:44 So now , come , let’s make a formal agreement , you and I , and it will be proof that we have made peace.”
31:45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial pillar .
31:46 Then he said to his relatives , “Gather stones .” So they brought stones and put them in a pile . They ate there by the pile of stones.
31:47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha , but Jacob called it Galeed .
31:48 Laban said , “This pile of stones is a witness of our agreement today .” That is why it was called Galeed .
31:49 It was also called Mizpah because he said , “May the Lord watch between us when we are out of sight of one another .
31:50 If you mistreat my daughters or if you take wives besides my daughters , although no one else is with us, realize that God is witness to your actions.”
31:51 “Here is this pile of stones and this pillar I have set up between me and you,” Laban said to Jacob .
31:52 “This pile of stones and the pillar are reminders that I will not pass beyond this pile to come to harm you and that you will not pass beyond this pile and this pillar to come to harm me.
31:53 May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor , the gods of their father , judge between us.” Jacob took an oath by the God whom his father Isaac feared .
31:54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat the meal . They ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain .
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
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expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes -> Gen 31:1; Gen 31:1; Gen 31:1; Gen 31:2; Gen 31:3; Gen 31:3; Gen 31:4; Gen 31:4; Gen 31:4; Gen 31:5; Gen 31:6; Gen 31:7; Gen 31:8; Gen 31:8; Gen 31:10; Gen 31:10; Gen 31:10; Gen 31:12; Gen 31:12; Gen 31:13; Gen 31:13; Gen 31:13; Gen 31:13; Gen 31:13; Gen 31:14; Gen 31:15; Gen 31:15; Gen 31:15; Gen 31:17; Gen 31:18; Gen 31:18; Gen 31:19; Gen 31:19; Gen 31:20; Gen 31:20; Gen 31:21; Gen 31:21; Gen 31:21; Gen 31:21; Gen 31:22; Gen 31:23; Gen 31:23; Gen 31:23; Gen 31:23; Gen 31:24; Gen 31:24; Gen 31:24; Gen 31:25; Gen 31:26; Gen 31:26; Gen 31:27; Gen 31:27; Gen 31:27; Gen 31:28; Gen 31:29; Gen 31:29; Gen 31:29; Gen 31:30; Gen 31:30; Gen 31:30; Gen 31:30; Gen 31:31; Gen 31:31; Gen 31:31; Gen 31:32; Gen 31:32; Gen 31:32; Gen 31:32; Gen 31:33; Gen 31:33; Gen 31:34; Gen 31:34; Gen 31:34; Gen 31:35; Gen 31:35; Gen 31:35; Gen 31:35; Gen 31:35; Gen 31:36; Gen 31:36; Gen 31:36; Gen 31:37; Gen 31:37; Gen 31:37; Gen 31:39; Gen 31:39; Gen 31:40; Gen 31:40; Gen 31:40; Gen 31:41; Gen 31:41; Gen 31:42; Gen 31:42; Gen 31:43; Gen 31:43; Gen 31:43; Gen 31:43; Gen 31:44; Gen 31:44; Gen 31:44; Gen 31:46; Gen 31:46; Gen 31:47; Gen 31:47; Gen 31:48; Gen 31:49; Gen 31:49; Gen 31:49; Gen 31:49; Gen 31:50; Gen 31:50; Gen 31:51; Gen 31:52; Gen 31:53; Gen 31:53; Gen 31:54; Gen 31:54
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NET Notes: Gen 31:2 Heb “and Jacob saw the face of Laban, and look, he was not with him as formerly.” Jacob knew from the expression on Laban’s face tha...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:3 I will be with you. Though Laban was no longer “with him,” the Lord promised to be.
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NET Notes: Gen 31:7 This rare verb means “to make a fool of” someone. It involves deceiving someone so that their public reputation suffers (see Exod 8:25).
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NET Notes: Gen 31:8 Heb “speckled” (twice this verse). The word “animals” (after the first occurrence of “speckled”) and “offspr...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:13 Leave this land immediately. The decision to leave was a wise one in view of the changed attitude in Laban and his sons. But more than that, it was th...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:14 The two nouns may form a hendiadys, meaning “a share in the inheritance” or “a portion to inherit.”
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NET Notes: Gen 31:15 Heb “our money.” The word “money” is used figuratively here; it means the price paid for Leah and Rachel. A literal translatio...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:17 Heb “and Jacob arose and he lifted up his sons and his wives on to the camels.”
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NET Notes: Gen 31:18 Heb “and he led away all his cattle and all his moveable property which he acquired, the cattle he obtained, which he acquired in Paddan Aram to...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:19 Or “household gods.” Some translations merely transliterate the Hebrew term תְּרָפִים...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:24 Heb “lest you speak with Jacob from good to evil.” The precise meaning of the expression, which occurs only here and in v. 29, is uncertai...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:25 Heb “and Jacob pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban pitched with his brothers in the hill country of Gilead.” The juxtaposition...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:27 Heb “And [why did] you not tell me so I could send you off with joy and with songs, with a tambourine and with a harp?”
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NET Notes: Gen 31:28 Heb “my sons and my daughters.” Here “sons” refers to “grandsons,” and has been translated “grandchildren...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:29 Heb “from speaking with Jacob from good to evil.” The precise meaning of the expression, which occurs only here and in v. 24, is uncertain...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:30 Yet why did you steal my gods? This last sentence is dropped into the speech rather suddenly. See C. Mabee, “Jacob and Laban: The Structure of J...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:32 The disjunctive clause (introduced here by a vav [ו] conjunction) provides supplemental material that is important to the story. Since this mate...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:36 Heb “What is my sin that you have hotly pursued after me.” The Hebrew verb translated “pursue hotly” is used elsewhere of sold...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:39 Heb “from my hand you exacted it.” The imperfect verbal form again indicates that this was a customary or typical action. The words “...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:41 Heb “served you,” but in this accusatory context the meaning is more “worked like a slave.”
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NET Notes: Gen 31:46 The Hebrew word for “pile” is גַּל (gal), which sounds like the name “Galeed” (גַּ...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:47 Galeed also means “witness pile” or “the pile is a witness,” but this name is Canaanite or Western Semitic and closer to later...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:51 Heb “and Laban said to Jacob, ‘Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between men and you.’” The order of the...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:52 Heb “This pile is a witness and the pillar is a witness, if I go past this pile to you and if you go past this pile and this pillar to me for ha...
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NET Notes: Gen 31:53 Heb “by the fear of his father Isaac.” See the note on the word “fears” in v. 42.
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